Then she added, as though to escape
further questioning, "I have seen Mrs. Herne only once, but
she seemed to me a very nice, clever old woman."
"Clever," said Mrs. Octagon, raising her eyebrows, which were
as strongly marked as those of her sister, "no. She does not
belong to The Circle."
"A person can be clever without that," said Juliet
impatiently.
"No. All the clever people in London come here, Juliet. If
Mrs. Herne had been brilliant, she would have found her way to
our Shrine."
Juliet shrugged her shoulders and curled her pretty lip. She
did not appreciate her privileges in that house. In fact, a
word distinctly resembling "Bother!" escaped from her mouth.
However, she went on talking of Mrs. Herne, as though to keep
her mother from questioning her further.
"There is a mystery about Mrs. Herne," she said, coming to the
fire; "for I asked Aunt Selina who she was, and she could not
tell me."
"That is so like Selina," rejoined Mrs. Octagon tartly,
"receiving a person of whom she knows nothing."
"Oh, she does know a little. Mrs. Herne is the widow of a
Spanish merchant, and she struck me as being foreign herself.
Aunt Selina has known her for three years, and she has come
almost every week to play whist at Rose Cottage. I believe
she lives at Hampstead!"
"It seems to me, Juliet, that your aunt told you a great deal
about this person. Why did you ask?"
Juliet stared into the fire. "There is something so strange
about Mrs.
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